Harold Porter

Name: Harold Porter

Gender: Male

Age: 17

Grade: Junior

School: Cochise High School

Hobbies and Interests: Superhero media, working out, wrestling team, political activism/social justice

Appearance: Harold is a tall, stocky person of Caucasian descent. His oval shaped, lily-green eyes are narrow, and his eyebrows are thin and curved. He stands tall at 6’3’’, weighing 190 pounds; a large portion of his weight coming from muscle. He has a square face, with a pronounced chin. His hair is black and brushed up.

Harold doesn’t put much thought or effort into his wardrobe, instead preferring to focus on improving his body. He mostly wears a variety of comfortable t-shirts, tank tops, and jeans; throwing on a sweatshirt in colder weather. Harold is nearsighted and owns a pair of circular reading glasses, but he prefers to wear contacts.

On the day of the abduction, Harold was wearing a black t-shirt with a heavily stylized image of Deadpool’s mask on it, gray cargo shorts, gray ankle socks, and black-and-white sneakers.

Biography: Harold was born on May 14, 1998 in Kingman, Arizona, the third child of Jeremy and Delilah Porter; respectively a construction worker and a stay-at-home mom. His older siblings, Ben and Abby, were three and seven years old.

For as long as he could remember, Harold’s family has spent two weeks of every summer visiting Jeremy’s brother Greg and his family, who lived in Florida. Also for as almost as long as he could remember, Greg’s son Derek, who was one year older than Harold; had dedicated his time during each visit to making Harold’s life hell.

Neither boy can quite remember what it was that had instantly soured their relationship, though Harold suspects that Derek was simply enjoying and abusing the fact that he was around someone both younger and weaker than him. Derek would “accidentally” push Harold around, give him “friendly” punches on the shoulder that were just a bit too hard, challenge Harold to physically-intensive games that Derek was guaranteed to win, and similar things that stretched into an endless string of petty nuisances. Though their parents would intercede on Harold’s behalf whenever they were around and happened to be looking; the abuse never seriously escalated to a point where either of their parents felt the need to intervene; chalking it up to just boys being boys.

Other than that, Harold’s childhood proceeded mostly uneventfully, though he was further out of shape than a typical child due to his experiences with the baseball and soccer teams his parents suggested that he join. Harold had nothing against the concept of exercise, per se; but his lack of fitness made him feel like he wasn’t contributing anything noteworthy to his teams. Harold became convinced that no matter what he did, he would never be able to meaningfully contribute, leaving him without the motivation to try and improve himself.

Everything changed for Harold once he entered middle school. His older sister had been an avid fan of comics for several years before claiming to have grown out of them, and had amassed a sizable collection. Abby rediscovered this collection while she was preparing to leave for college, and decided everything to a curious Harold, who had expressed an interest in them.

Harold’s attention was instantly captured by the powerful, larger than life superheroes. He was particularly enraptured by Captain America, especially his backstory of being sickly and frail before transforming into a champion of justice. After reading through all of the Captain-centered comics his sister had, as well as seeing his movie, Harold began to idolize him, wanting to live up to the ideals of goodness the character stood for.

This idolization, as well as a desire to stand up to Derek, inspired Harold to work up the motivation to get himself in shape. His first thought was to accomplish this by joining the school’s wrestling team, as it was the closest analogue to comic-book-style combat that he could find. Unfortunately for him, he was unable to pass the fitness test required to join said club.

Not giving up on seeing his goal through, Harold enlisted the help of Ben, who was a member of the school’s football team. With his brother’s help and guidance, along with many months filled with hard work and determination, Harold was able to get in shape enough to pass the test and join the wrestling team when he entered 7th grade the following year.

Though it was difficult for him at first, Harold immediately loved wrestling. He saw it as the purest possible test of one’s body and fitness, nothing but himself against a single opponent. Harold continues to be passionate about the sport to the present day, having numerous close friends on the team and participated in several regional competitions.

Derek was unusually quiet for the first summer family visit after Harold got into shape, partaking in none of his usual torments. Harold didn’t press the issue, happy enough to just be left alone. Derek formally apologized for his previous behavior the following year, and the two boys have gotten along ever since.

During his freshman year of high school, Harold was introduced to a political activism forum that a friend of his frequented. Discussing ways to make the world a better place strongly appealed to his sense of morality, and the time he spent there also tempered his previously black-and-white idea of justice, helping him realize that not every issue in the real world is cut-and-dry. The board died out after a couple years, but Harold still keeps in touch with many of its posters, and has started an activism/social justice blog of his own.

In the present day, Harold still love superhero media and is overjoyed by the current flood of movies, finding it refreshing to escape for a while to a reality where evil can be defeated by many punches to the face. Abby has similarly regained her interest in the heroes she used to love, and she and Harold catch new releases in the theater when they are able.

He views working out and staying in shape as a personal responsibility, mainly to avoid letting his team down. Privately, he also entertains fantasies of needing to keep his body prepared in case a crisis ever happens when he is nearby; though he is aware of how unrealistic that is.

Harold is certain that those with the power to act are morally obligated to do the right thing, an ideal which translates to reality in the form of using his voice to help speak along with the voiceless, especially as a cis, straight, white male. Harold is very liberal, and easily gets worked up over issues. As a result, he is quick to lash out against and dismiss those who voice opinions he considers unjust within earshot, which has made him enemies at school.

Academically, he doesn’t particularly excel or fail, keeping a B/C average in his classes. History appeals to him the most, with its focus on historical social issues, and he similarly enjoys English because of its elements of seeing a culture’s values through its art. He does have trouble wrapping his head around mathematical and scientific formulas. Overall, when not fired up, Harold is generally easy to get along with; preferring to keep to the company of himself and his friends.

Advantages: Harold is physically fit, and his experience on the wrestling team would give him an advantage in hand-to-hand combat. His sense of justice might help endear him to other students.

Disadvantages: Harold has a very idealistic, strong sense of right and wrong, and will instinctively butt into situations where he feel injustice is being done; putting him at large risk of entering dangerous situations. He is nearsighted. His vocal opinions have previously soured others towards him.

Designated Number: Male student no. 034

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Designated Weapon: Shatterproof coffee brewing pot

Conclusion: "Shatterproof," huh? Sounds like a challenge. Come on, you're a reasonably big guy. Smash that thing to bits and stab 'em with the pieces! In a pinch, you can also use it to make coffee. Imagine that. - Dennis Lourvey

'The above biography is as written by dmboogie. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.'

Evaluations
Handled by: dmboogie

Kills: None

Killed By: Conrad Harrod

Collected Weapons: Shatterproof coffee brewing pot (assigned weapon), Ram Dao sword (from Tyler Yazzie, to Conrad Harrod)

Allies: Tyler Yazzie, Clarice Halwood

Enemies: Conrad Harrod

Mid-game Evaluation: Harold started on the slopes, but quickly decided to take some form of action in pursuit of his idea of justice and headed for the asylum proper. There, in the regular therapy rooms he met his buddy Tyler Yazzie, and the two were quickly inclined to form an alliance. They were interrupted by Eliza Luz and Astrid Tate in rapid succession, with Harold quickly taking steps to disarm the situation from escalating into a firefight before leaving with Ty.

They ran into an injured Clarice Halwood tended to by Conrad Harrod. Conrad is unfortunately paranoid of Harold's attempts to help, and when Harold attempted to get closer Conrad stabbed Harold in the chest. Conrad is wrestled into submission and had his arm broken by Ty who only then arrived, with only Clarice and Harold's insistence preventing him from going further. Harold was put onto a gurney by Clarice and Conrad and was then wheeled off to the bell tower, the trio abandoning Conrad.

Harold tried to hang on and reassure his friends, but to no avail. He slipped into an unconsciousness from which he did not awaken.

Post-Game Evaluation: Alas, it seems today that B034 was not the boy who lived. - Jim Greynolds

Memorable Quotes: "Hey - none of this... none of this is your fault, alright?" - Harold's last words to his friends.

Other/Trivia

 * Harold is the only non-NPC member of the Cochise wrestling team who does not have Navajo ancestry. Clarice Halwood and Roderick Kanuho are fully Navajo, while Tyler Yazzie is about a third.
 * Harold was the first character to be rolled in V6.
 * The entirety of Harold's original concept was the phrase "buff Harry Potter."
 * dmboogie won the September 2016 Best Death Award for Harold's death.

Threads
Below is a list of threads containing Harold, in chronological order.

V6:
 * Determination
 * Thirteen Steps
 * By the time you hear the next pop, the funk shall be within you
 * This Is Not My Country, This Is Not What I Believe

Your Thoughts
''Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Harold Porter. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!''
 * Harold uses his thoughts and internal narrative space strongly, which is always a good thing of course. His philosophy is laid out clearly, maybe almost a bit too thick from the get go, but the verbosity of his character's internal narrative is something that is handled fairly well from then on with what becomes a good exchange between solid interaction with his environment and dialogue and his internal thoughts guided by his clear, consistent philosophy. He has a 'talkative' busy sort of prose, which is wonderfully winded down to his death. Another literally quietly optimistic death, which we had a number of in first rolls. His brand of optimistic realism is wonderfully parlayed in his death, as a sort of admission that things are wrong but they can get better. And of course, for him, they never will. He never even speaks again in his last post, considering his friendliness that's earnest but realistic (how he handles what Conrad does to him is spot on, in my opinion). Excellently executed by boogie, a strong character for no pregame and first rolled off. -- Cicada Days